Inferior phrenic artery, Diaphragm, Genital branch. Pleuroperitoneal fold, Female rat Summary: The principal aim of this study was to elucidate the general features of the inferior phrenic artery (IPA) of female rats which retain the original embryonic configuration of this artery. The artery of the right side was found to be detached from the renal artery, while that of the left side arose from the aorta. Between these fellow arteries, however, no essential morphological differences were discernible. At some point not far from their origin, they were found to break up into the ascending, suprarenal, suprareno genital and descending arteries.The ascending artery of the right side coursed along with the phrenic nerve, and vascularized a greatest portion of the total area of the partes sternalis et costalis of the diaphragm. Furthermore, the artery was found to be intimately associated with the inferior caval vein. Thus, it could be assumed that this artery of adult rats has been embryologically related to the musculus diaphragmaticus, transverse septum, ventral pleuroperitoneal fold, and the caval venous mesentery. The suprarenal artery took its course along the superior margin of this gland to reach the lateroinferior part of the pars costalis of the diaphragm. Its course and destination strongly indicates that in its development the suprarenal artery has been intimately related to the formation of the ventral pleuroperitoneal fold. The suprarenogenital artery was characterized as giving off a genital branch which entered first the diaphragmogenital ligament, and then took a descending course toward the ovary, in a quite similar manner of origin and course to those of the aberrant gonadal (testicular and gonadal) arteries observed in Japanese human adults (Shinohara et al., 1990; Hanie, to be published). The descending artery was observed to be closely associated with the major splanclinic nerve and the celiac ganglion. The variability of arteries of the IPA of female rats and also of humans, seems to reflect dramatic changes which have occured in the early stages of development, and have influenced more or less the morphology of the uppermost abdominal anlages of the followings: transverse septum, musculus diaphragmaticus, dorsal and ventral pleuroperitoneal folds, suprarenal gland and celiac ganglion, urogenital organs, inferior caval vein in the caval venous mesentery. In conclusion, it could be said that the anatomy of female rats provide us valuable clues as to the essential configuration of the IPA of humans and the relationships of the IPA to structures which are thought to be directly involved in the development of this artery.

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As for the first capitular joint, Ohman (1986) claimed that a univertebral type is unique to modern and fossil hominids among primates. Stern and Jungers (1990) compiled the data in a wider range of primate and demonstrated as follows. The univertebral type, rather than being unique to hominids, is common among siamang, occurs in an occasional gibbon, and is typical of the larger indriids. We added the data of genera of Cebidae and Cercopithecidae to that observation, and found that the univertebral type is also typical of the Pithecia in Cebidae and Papio and Cercopithecus in Cercopithecidae. We also found that the bivertebral type occurs in 19.4% of Homo. Gloobe and Nathan (1970) had already observed that most mammals have a full facet for the first rib and a hemifacet for the second in the first thoracic vertebra. Accordingly, it seems that Ohman's claim is not applicable for nonhominoid primates and for mammals.

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Various tissues fixed in a mixture of formaldehyde and glutaraldehyde, and embedded in an improved 2hydroxypropyl methacrylate mixture were employed for studying the fine structures of cells and tissues by light microscopy. The embedding mixture contained Quetol 523 and methyl methacrylate as a plasticizer without a cross-linker. The catalyst was QCU-1. The mixture had a low viscosity, was easy to handle and penetrated readily and completely into the specimen, producing a homogeneous block from which it was easy to cut sections of 1-2μm in thickness. A wide variety of stains have been employed with such sections and those reported here are hematoxylin-eosin, Azan and PAS. There was excellent preservation of alkaline phosphatase activity. A method of poststaining immunoperoxidase labeling was also applied to the mouse pancreas and examples of staining with insulin are included.

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The authors previously investigated the bottle-shaped glands distributed in the lamina propria mucosae of the Japanese lizard and gecko. We made two sets of sections of the Japanese lizard at that time. The numerical values of the physical dimentions of the two individuals were as given table 1, showing that No.2 was slightly smaller. Moreover we found very unusual tissue in the lower portion of the esophagus of No.2. Therefore we excluded this individual from the preceding investigations. However, we made various observations, and the results of these investigations are as follows.
1. The lumen of the upper portion of the esophagus has no fold. However, the middle and lower portions formed very complicated folds. Therefore, the lumen was remarkably narrow.
2. The epithelium of the esophageal mucous membrane consisted of simple columnar cells and throughout each part, reacted strongly to PAS and moderately to AB (pH 2.5 and 0.5). It presented a dark blue (R18 - B13 of Blue-Purple-Red)color in response to PAS-AB (pH 2.5) and contained no pepsinogen granules. The esophageal upper portion of small individuals only exhibited the PAS reaction in this investigation.
3. A number of bottle-shaped glands were distributed in the lamina propria mucosae of the lower portion of the esophagus of each material. The glandular cells in the basal portion were most differentiated and contained a great number of pepsinogen granules.
4. The above-mentioned glands were extremely simple and glands of this type could not be found in textbooks and theses. Accordingly, we previously described them with the tentative name of shimple branched tubular glands, but subsequently found this to be erroneous. We assume that these glands are esophageal gastric glands.
5, Compound tubular glands are formed in the lamina propria mucosae of the human esophagus, but do not exist in the Japanese macaque, crab-eating monkey, horse, cow, swine, dog, cat, rabbit, mouse and rat. Dellmann-Brown also described the absence of such glands in the esophagus of the horse, swine, cow, goat, sheep, dog and cat.
6. We subsequently found compound tubular glands distributed in the lamina propria mucosae of the fowl, goose and wild duck esophagus. They similarly secreted pepsinogen granules.
7. We assume that these glands of the Japanese lizard and gecko have a phylogenic relation with the glands in the bird. The pepsinogen-granule-secreting cells in the snake do not extend into the lamina propria mucosae.
8. Accordingly, we consider that these cells in the snake are phylogenetically different to the glands in other reptiles.
9. We can not interpret the actual characteristics of the glands distributed in the lamina propria mucosae of the human esophagus. These glands are not found in other mammals.
10. We have never seen a more unusual tissue than that in the lower esophageal portion of material No. 2. it was composed of numerous large and small projections, all with slender cervical regions and long swollen ellipsoid bodies. We saw a few large projections with nuclei, but could not find any in the numerous remaining projections and it seems that no small nucleated projections developed.
11. The unusual tissue reacted strongly to PAS and AB (pH 2.5), moderately to AB (pH 0.5) and presented a dark blue color with PAS-AB (pH 2.5) stain. The cervix and the greater part of the body contiguous to the cervix reacted strongly to PAS, but the basal portion was negative and contained the nucleus.
12. The above-mentioned colored portions did not stain with hematoxylin-eosin stain.

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The arrangement of the nerve bundles at the branching point of the femoral nerve (F), the interrelations of the branches each other and toward other nerves in the anterior region of the thigh, and the patterns and the anatomical features of both the running courses and the distributions of the branches were macroscopically studied, whereby some special findings were observed and the following results were obtained: 1) The periphery of the femoral nerve was fundamentally divided into superficial-deeply arranged three-layered divisions. Including the femoral branch of the genitofemoral nerve (Rf) and the femoral lateral cutaneous nerve (Cfl), the nerve branches at the anterior region of the thigh were totally divided into five-layered divisions. 2) The cutaneous branches of each division including Rf or Cfl could be classified in three groups: the medial cutaneous branches (m), the anterior cutaneous branches (a), and the lateral cutaneous branches (l). Based on the above results, the branches could be described systematically. Parallelly, several accessory bundles of F penetrating the psoas major muscle were observed, and two types of accessory femoral nerves (F') could be distinguished: One was higher on the segmentation and mainly flew into the lst division of F. While the other distributed only to the medial region of the thigh. To clarify the segmental or stratifical natures of the branches of each divisions, F', and the interrelations among them, analyses of the nerve fibers were undertaken under the operational microscope. Consequently, the segmental differences between the divisions were distinct, and the medial branches or Fm obviously contained ventral components. Thus, when a component originated from the higher segments, it distributed to the proximal region generally taking a superficial course; when it originated from the lower ones, it distributed to the distal region of the thigh forming the deeper division; when it belonged to the ventral stratum, it distributed to the medial region; and when it belonged to the dorsal stratum, it distributed to the lateral region. On the occasion of the fiber analysis, it was found that each root of the lumbar nerve was generally divided into two or three subsegmentally-arranged subroots that divided themselves into some fasciculi arranged micro-segmentally. A minute analysis of the segmentations of the nerves became possible because of the above characteristics.

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Brains of small, adult laboratory animals, fixed by formalin-perfusion, and cut into pieces usually 2-3 mm thick X 3-5 mm 2 are placed into a solution containing: 7% aqueous solution of potassium dichromate 100 ml,99.5% ethyl alcohol 40 ml, concentrated formalin 10 ml, distilled water 50 ml, for 24 hours. The process is repeated with a freshly prepared solution for another 24 hours. The pieces are then transfered to a 3.5% aqueous solution of potassium dichromate for 48hours, and then to a 1% aqueous solution of silver nitrate for 48 hours. Frozen or celloidin sections 70-100μm in thickness are put into 90% and then into 100% ethyl alcohol for 30 minutes respectively, creosote-benzene (1: 1), benzene and mounted with or without cover glass applying Entellan neu. This procedure gives high quality impregnation and it takes about one week to complete.

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